Feedback on Pitch & Further Thoughts

I showed my pitch to Annie Redman and Sally Carmody (both 17 and members of my target audience).  They suggested I should think more about areas which I haven't addressed in detail:

• Make-up
• Hannah's Clothes
• Exact locations for shooting 
• Who will i use for the young girl?
• Do i need any more actors/actresses?

After doing my pitch for my music video i discovered different aspects of my ideas that I needed to work on. I recognised that i need to be more specific with my location, costumes, make-up and all aspects of mise en scene. Hannah is willing to do her own make-up as she is good at it - her make-up will be of a natural every-day style, and her outfit(s) will be casual/ everyday clothing because the video is taking place on a normal day for Hannah, where she has flashbacks to her past. This will make it look like the flashbacks she has are a regular occurrence and she very often thinks about her disturbed childhood - this reinforces the strength of the lyrics.

I have decided i am going to go to Aust (by the Severn Bridge) to film parts of my music promotional video. This location is very scenic. I am also going to capture footage in the country side (woods and fields) in Olveston, a small rural village. I think these locations will be suitable to Hannah's song, "Bigger Than Me" because they are very calm, like the song. Hannah lives in Olveston and Aust is only down the road from there. Olveston is only a 15 minute drive from where I live so I will easily be able to get to my locations to meet Hannah.

The colour modes of the video will all be filmed outside - this is Hannah in her present life where she is free from abuse. The black and white modes of the video will be filmed inside the house where Hannah grew up and will show confined spaces - which reinforces the fact that she was trapped as a young girl.

I have realised that it is going to be very hard to find a young girl to be in my video as I don't have any younger siblings and don't know anyone who would be suitable for the role. I am going to abandon this idea and just use Hannah in the black and white flashback modes of the video and make her look very vulnerable and depressed. I am only going to have Hannah herself featuring in the video so it reinforces that she is alone - like how she felt during her childhood.

From looking at past A2 student's promotional music videos, I have concluded that the videos aren't as effective and are obvious that they are amateur when there are a lot of people involved in the shots because it made it hard for the photographer to focus on the singer and the storyline to the video. Also, some people didn't use a variety of different scenes and locations in their video, which I think made it boring because there was only one thing happening in once place. From research using Youtube, I have found that all professional artist's music videos (e.g. Katy Perry's 'Last Friday Night') have a number of scenes in different locations - this is what makes them intriguing and draws their audience in.

Although a sense of voyeurism is used in almost all of the modern female artist's music videos (e.g. Rihanna and Jessie J), I don't think it would be appropriate to use it for this video because it is a very serious and I wouldn't want to distract the audience.

I need to identify exactly what will happen in the video at all points of the song. To help me plan this I am going to make an animatic story board using iMovie and also print the song lyrics out and make notes about the types of shots I can use at certain points of the song.

Pitch

More Inspiration

With help from Hannah, I researched some music videos to help with further inspiration and to get ideas for shooting my video.

Delilah - Go
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxNe9jWNuEU
I like how she is walking through an empty street and singing directly into the camera - it makes her look powerful. The shots at the beginning are held for a long time - if I was to do this I need to make sure they don't become boring. The camera films Delilah's side profile and other angles whilst she is still walking and singing at the beginning - I could do this with Hannah to show her surroundings when she is singing. There is a shot of the sky to show what time of day it is - night time. I am also going to film a shot of the sky but for a different reason - the clouds to show that Hannah is daydreaming.

Lauren Aquilina - Fools
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uodUCtmCRME
We chose to watch this video because it is the same kind of genre as 'Bigger Than Me' and Lauren Aquilina has a similar sounding voice as Hannah. The video consists of Lauren on a 'journey' and cuts back to her singing to the camera at different points - this is what I'd like to do in my video. 

Becky CJ - Easy For You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6WP8ro8u4s
At the beginning of this video there are shots of scenery like grass and woods - this is exactly how I want to begin my video. There are lots of shots of Becky singing in the middle of a field, as though she is lost - I like this idea and it would be suitable for my "Bigger Than Me" video. She sings a lot to the camera, breaking the fourth wall - I do not want to do as much of this as Becky does because i want to tell more of a story in my video. 

Gabrielle Alpin - Home
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pLsb1YMsKE

This video cuts between close ups and long shots of Gabrielle singing and her walking through fields 'on a journey' - this is very similar to what I want to do in my video. I think it looks effective how there are different shots and angles of her climbing the gate - I would like to do this in my video of Hannah climbing a gate whilst on her walk though the country side. An over the shoulder shot is used to show Gabrielle looking out into the distance and show her surroundings/the landscape - I would like to also do this in my video. 

Singer Photographs

My Interview With Hannah MacLeod

I have decided i am going to use my friend Hannah to create my music promotion video and ancillary tasks. Hannah used to go to my school before she went off to study music at college and she writes her own music and songs. I interviewed Hannah about her music career and her song 'Bigger Than Me', which is the song I will be making a music video for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS1GUTd8cMI&feature=youtu.be

'Watch The Sun Come Up' & 'Latch"

Example - 'Watch The Sun Come Up' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAgegxdVdFU

Disclosure Feat. Sam Smith - 'Latch' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93ASUImTedo 


Example's video is the narrative of the song, about him meeting a girl on holiday and not wanting to leave her, and Disclosure's video shows a number of couples who are 'latching onto each other'. These two music videos both share a similar style. At points in the videos, cartoon drawings appear. 

Disclosure use the same cartoon face drawing to overlay different characters faces in the video. The drawn face has no emotion and flashes to the beat of the song for just a couple of seconds. When watching this for the first time i was confused as to why Disclosure would choose to do this but after watching it a couple of times i thought that perhaps they are trying to bring the characters together/to tell us that they have something in common. 

Example uses cartoon drawings to replace a video/photo shot. The video tells the story of his holiday where he met a girl and he reminisces the memories he has with her. A shot of the girl led in bed gets replaced by a drawing of her led in bed - I think the idea of choosing drawings to replace pictures is to reinforce that they are a distant memory, and that she no longer exists in his life, because a drawing is a lot less real than a photo. The fact that it turns from a colour picture to a black and white drawing/sketch emphasises this.

I love the idea of having a small amount of drawing/sketches pop up in a music video because although at first you may wonder what the point of it is and that it just looks 'cool', there is usually meaning behind it. I could use sketches to show Hannah's emotion in my music video. If i decide to use some then i could feature the same small drawing in my digipak and/or poster, to give them a strong link.

Adele - 'Someone Like You'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLQl3WQQoQ0

Adele's 'Someone Like You' is of the pop/soul/blues genres - it is hard to classify it as one genre. Her lyrics are about how she is miserable and lonely because her relationship has ended. From reviews online i have read  that the video was shot early in the morning - this allowed the photographers to focus on Adele in a lonely and emotional space. The music video illistrates the song. The video's narrative features Adele wandering the early morning streets and pining for her long-lost love. When she sees her ex-lover in the building, he starts to walk away and several shots of Adele looking him follow. The mood is sad but also beautiful. The video is filmed in paris - this location evokes style and romance, which fits the lyrics of Adele's song. The whole video is filmed in black and white and looks like old cinema film - grainy. The black and white colours reflect Adele's emotion - sad and heartbroken. She rarely makes eye contact with the camera which suggests that she is vulnerable and shy - probably because she is heartbroken. No voyeurism or elaborate choreography is used which is unusual for a pop video. The video lasts 4:45 minutes.

Proposal

Music videos are important because they help the audience to understand the meaning of a song. I have watched and analysed music videos from Pop and R&B artists and have noticed similarities that they all share:

• Most of the videos tend to be the narrative of the song lyrics. 
• Most female artists use voyeurism to attract an audience.
• Choreography is used frequently.

I want my music video to tell the narrative of the song as i feel these type of videos are more intriguing for audiences rather than scenes which don't match the lyrics. I will be able to create an aspect of voyeurism by using female(s) in my video dressed and made up looking attractive. It would be extremely hard for me to choreograph a dance routine and find dancers who would be capable and willing to dance for my video. Unfortunately my only options for my singers, dancers and actors/actresses are my peers at school. I feel that by using a slower, perhaps acoustic/piano, song for my music video with only a couple of actors/actresses I will be able to create a more effective narrative. An artist that comes under this category include Adele. I will look at the music videos for a more accurate idea of how I can make a similar video for a similar genre.